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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa

Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa is a German ink that comes in a 50ml bottle. It's popular for two reasons, the first being that it's water resistant since it is iron gall, just like Salix. Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it, but know that this ink is not the same 'pure' iron gall that is known to be corrosive to metals, rather it is a modern formulation that behaves much more like conventional fountain pen ink. Rohrer and Klingner does recommend that you clean the ink out of your pen every week, and be aware that iron gall inks aren't ideal for all pen types and models.

Scabiosa's water resistance and ease of cleaning are every bit as great as Salix. There is one aspect where Scabiosa has a leg up on Salix, and that's dry time. Salix had about a 25 second dry time, but Scabiosa dries quite a bit faster, only about 10 seconds on Rhodia paper, which is quite ink resistant. This is a huge plus given that it's a pretty wet writing ink. And the shading is great, too!

I used a Ruby Lamy Al-Star with a medium nib for this review, mainly because it's a popular style of pen and the nib size is a good balance between dry time and shading ability.

Ruby Red Lamy Al-Star

Scabiosa is a great color, a dusty purple much like many of my favorite colors. Here are some of the other colors that are like Scabiosa. The only other purple that really has any water resistance in this color range is Noodler's La Reine Mauve, and that ink looks a lot 'dustier' and washed out on the page. Scabiosa has great vibrancy and shading like Purple Heart and Blackcurrant, but with the bonus of the water resistance. No wonder it's up there with Salix as the best selling Rohrer and Klingner color. Check out the other inks similar in color:

Scabiosa comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.

I was a bit surprised at how different the two are as well. I haven't used them extensively on other papers, but you can expect shorter dry time, a little less shading and perhaps a little darker color if the paper is more absorbent.

Yes, in fact I specifically mention LRM in the review because it's the only other waterproof dusty purple I know. LRM is not as vibrant, and has no shading at all, it's quite flat and chalky looking, as really all of the Noodler's eternal inks are. Scabiosa is a much more attractive color than LRM, and it's actually, believe it or not, more economical, too!

The first thing I noticed was the similarity to Poussiere de Lune. If anything, the shading appears to be even better. To me, it looks like the water resistant version of dusty purple and that sounds pretty useful.

Scabiosa is a similar hue to PDL, but it's a more saturated color. I don't know if I'd say it has more shading, but the shading stands out more because the color is a little darker. It's absolutely delightful!